Star Trek and the Little Man

As the Little Man gets older (he’s almost 23 months!) his consumption of information and the need to be entertained seems to increase exponentially. It is no longer enough to point to an airplane in the sky. He wants to see airplanes on the computer. And even that doesn’t seem to be enough. So this weekend, nearly at my wits’ end, I tried another approach.

“Do you want to watch spaceships?” I said to him. He knows what a spaceship is. He has the cover of the May 1941 Astounding on the wall above his crib.

“Yeah!” he said, clapping his little hands.

“Okay, come here.”

He jumped into my lap and watched me pop in the DVD to my second-favorite* Star Trek: TNG episode: “All Good Things…”

There was the dramatic introduction with Picard rushing out in his robe to ask about the date, and his big reveal that he thought he was bouncing around in time. The Little Man seemed a bit restless, but I said, “Hang on, buddy, watch…”

Then the opening sequence began. “What’s that ?” I asked pointing to the screen.

“Tars!” he said, happily.

“Now watch carefully. Look there’s a spaceship!” We watched the Enterprise zip across the screen. Then we were looking at stars again. “Okay, watch…” The Enterprise zipped across the screen again.”

“‘Paceship!” said the Little Man.

“That’s right, buddy.”

After that, each time the Enterprise would zip across the screen, the Little Man would giggle and clap his hands and shout out, “‘Paceship!” When the opening sequence was over and the episode restarted, he watched for about two minutes and then furrowed his brow. “No, Daddy, more ‘paceship.”

With a sigh, I returned to the opening sequence again. And again. And again. Now I’m wondering if the Little Man’s first complete and clear sentence will be: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise…”

*Oh, and if you are wondering what my favorite Star Trek:TNG episode is, it’s The Inner Light.